9 Tips That Will Bolster Your Sales Efforts

Many believe the sales game has changed drastically in the last few years thanks to the Internet and the collapse of the New Economy. While it is true that businesses and salespeople have a lot more tools at their disposal nowadays, there are certain sales practices that are timeless. These fundamentals are the skills that the very best salespeople strive to perfect, because at the end of the day a sales tool is only as good as the salesperson behind it.

Good Salespeople Succeed No Matter What The Economic Climate.

Now, more than ever, businesses need their salespeople to pound the pavement, to hit the ground running and reach out to prospects. Consider this your refresher course on sales-Sales 101. These 9 sales tips will never go out of style and will make you money.

9 Tips That Will Bolster Your Sales Efforts:

Tip #1. Know Your Product/Service - Salespeople cannot hope to sell their product or service if they do not know it top to bottom, inside and out. That is why the first thing any salesperson should do is learn their product or service completely. There is simply no excuse not to be an expert on what you are selling.

Tip #2. Know Your Prospects - Just as salespeople should be educated on their product or service, they should also be educated on their prospects. Salespeople should have a target niche they are selling to, and should be able to engage them on level footing. Knowing your prospects will provide the sort of insight that helps close a sale.

Tip #3. Learn About Your Competitors - "Tire Kickers" are a type of prospect notorious for shopping around, for testing the water. Tire Kickers are the most likely to ask a salesperson about the differences between their product or service and their competitors'. That is why it is crucial for salespeople to know these differences as well as they know their own product or service.

Tip #4. Be Proactive; Take The Initiative - Never wait for the phone to ring, for a prospect to call you. Business will not just "happen," it requires initiative. Great salespeople are constantly networking, making calls and following-up on marketing campaigns.

Tip #5. Remember Your Existing Clients - Sales is not always about prospects. Your existing clients, the people you have already won over, are still just as valuable as ever. Keep them in the loop about any new offers, specials, discounts or products/services that might be of interest to them.

Tip #6. Cross-Sell Your Products/Services - Cross-selling products or services is another area of sales commonly underleveraged. So long as an additional product or service is relevant to a client or prospect, they will appreciate that you are looking out for them, and may just take you up on a promising offer.

Tip #7. Keep Track Of Sales Progress - Tracking sales results and how those results are achieved is an excellent way of creating a factual roadmap that shows which sales techniques work and which do not. The easiest way to do this is by using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.

Tip #8. Always Follow-Up - Persistence is an essential trait for any salesperson. On average, prospects do not commit after the first phone call, e-mail or marketing touch. It takes multiple touches to nurture the seed of interest in a prospect's mind, and those multiple touches require follow-up.

Tip #9. Learn From Your Mistakes - Regardless of line of work, everyone should strive for improvement, including salespeople. One of the best ways to do this is to examine your past mistakes. Spend some time going over past sales efforts and exploring what went wrong and why in order to prevent repeating those mistakes in the future.

Executive Summary: Remember, bells and whistles and fancy technology are not the things that drive sales - it's the salesperson. Top producing salespeople continuously examined their sales skills and look for different angles to become successful. Ultimately, it is the disciplined salesperson who does the right things each day who wins the majority of sales.